A Whiter Shade of Pale
by dnachemlia
Summary: Superglue - one of the few substances that can be used to develop latent fingerprints on human skin. Written for the NFA Superglue Challenge.


**A Whiter Shade of Pale**

Written for the Superglue Challenge

Rating: FR 15

Characters: mainly Abby

Genre: Angst

Warning: Character Death

_Disclaimer__:_ All recognizable characters are the property of their respective copyright holders. No infringement intended. The original characters and places mentioned are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to those living, dead, or undead is completely coincidental.

Summary: Superglue - one of the few substances that can be used to develop latent fingerprints on human skin.

~X~X~X~

Abby stood just outside the Autopsy doors, kit in hand, steeling herself for the task ahead. She had performed the procedure—recovery latent fingerprints on human skin—many times before, with varying levels of success. This was, however, the first time she had to perform the test on someone she knew.

Drawing in a deep breath, she stepped forward and the doors slid open with a soft whoosh of air, the smell of which gave her pause. She never had liked this room, even when she had managed to get over her irrational fear of being here, and the scent kindled too many unpleasant memories. She knew Jimmy took pride in keeping the facility scrupulously clean, but the olfactory ghosts of old cases still lingered.

Abby moved through the open doors and saw that Ducky and Jimmy were waiting for her, their expressions grim. They stood in front of the gurney, blocking some of their most recent 'patient' from view. Ducky stepped forward and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Are you certain you will be able to handle this, Abigail?"

Abby nodded, not trusting her own voice as she stared at the silent form awaiting her attention. Ducky gave her a sympathetic smile and stepped aside, allowing Abby to move forward and set her equipment on the table next to the gurney.

"Do you need any help?" Jimmy asked, hesitantly.

"No, I got it." She slowly started to put the fuming apparatus together.

"Are you sure?"

She managed a smile. "I still remember the last time you tried to help…"

"Yeah. I got more superglue on the floor…and myself, than you got in the machine."

Abby's smile grew a little brighter. That had been such a mess, and it had taken almost an hour to dissolve it all. Tim had… Her smile disappeared.

"OK, I'll just watch. Did you know that superglue fuming of latent prints was invented independently in three different places—"

"Yes, Jimmy, I knew that," Abby replied, her tone harsher than she had intended. "Sorry."

"I have a suspicion that Abigail would prefer to do this alone, Mr. Palmer. Come along." Ducky guided his assistant through the doors and out into the hall towards his office. Abby sighed and returned her attention to the apparatus she was assembling.

Once the superglue had been added to the small cup at the end of the device and the heater activated, she set it on the table and turned to the study the body laid out on the gurney. Dark bruises around its throat stood out starkly against pale grey skin, a testimony to the final act of violence committed against the innocent victim. The bruises also provided a marker for finding what Abby sought – the fingerprints of the animal who had ended the victim's life.

Finally, when the device was ready, Abby pulled on her mask and goggles, turned on the fan and a trail of white fumes emerged from the end of the fuming wand. She held the wand over the victim's throat, waving it back and forth, and the fumes collected over the skin. Within a few seconds the ridge patterns, white against the dark bruises began to appear. Abby turned off the device, grabbed her camera and placed a filter over the lens to improve the contrast. She held the scale in place and snapped several pictures, capturing the details necessary to do a database search. She checked the images and, satisfied that she would be able to use them, she started to disassemble the fuming apparatus.

A few minutes later she had everything packed and ready to leave, but she lingered to take one last look at the body.

"It's not fair," Abby whispered as she gazed at the pale, silent face. "You still had so much ahead of you, so much to do with your life. It shouldn't have been taken from you so soon. It's just not fair."

"It rarely is, Abbs." She turned to find Gibbs standing behind her, his eyes sad. "But we're going to make sure this bastard doesn't hurt anyone else."

Abby nodded and hugged the lead agent. "I'm going to find this guy, Gibbs. For… for McGee."

Gibbs squeezed her shoulder and she released him with a teary smile before taking a deep breath, grabbing her equipment, and heading back to her lab.

Soon she had the images loaded into the database and the details marked for the search. She made a few notations in the file and then started searching through the military database. She then loaded a second set of images and started another search, this time through the civilian database.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the search engine produced a list of possible suspects. She checked it against their suspect list and felt a small surge of triumph. There was a match. She grabbed her phone's headset from its cradle and hit the first number on speed dial.

"I got him, Gibbs! Sergeant Owen Wiley, he lives on the base in Quantico. Go get him!"

"_That's good work, Abbs."_

A click signaled the end of call and she hung up the phone. "We got him, McGee."

"I should be there…"

Abby turned to face the figure sitting in a shadowy corner of the lab. "I know you want to take this guy down, but Director Vance said-"

"-By the book." Abby heard a soft sigh that was almost a sob. "Never stopped Gibbs."

"I know, but…"

"I failed her."

Abby walked over to the corner and sat down next to her friend. "No, you didn't. We'll take him down, Tim. We'll get her justice. I promise."

She saw a shadow of a smile cross his face.

"Thanks, Abbs. Thanks for finding him."

Abby reached over and pulled him into a hug. "You do what you can for family."

The End


End file.
